Daily Show and Colbert go high def on Jan. 4

Almost a year ago, Talk Show News reported that Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" would start broadcasting in high definition in 2010. Broadcasting & Cable confirms that when the shows return from their holiday breaks on Jan. 4, both programs will indeed be in HD: "The holdup was the long process of updating the control rooms, while continuing to put on a program four times a week."

Of course, to view the programs in high def, you have to receive Comedy Central's HD station, which launched early last year. A bonus for West Coast viewers: so far, there's only one HD feed, which means those of us in the Pacific Time Zone can watch Jon and Stephen at 8 PM (the rebroadcast airs at 10:30 PM). East Coast folks will still have to wait until 11 PM, with a rerun at 1:30 AM.

In other "Daily Show" news, producer David Javerbaum revealed on San Francisco public radio station KQED's "Forum" talk show last month that he is working on a sequel to 2004's America: The Book, to be released in the fall of 2010.